July 1-3, 2000

Day 1

For the Canada Day long weekend, we decided that the best way to spend it was to explore some of this fantastic country in which we live. A relaxing camping and exploration trip around the Princeton area was the perfect idea. The plan was to camp at the forest fire lookout station on Agate Mtn the first night, and explore old mines on Nickelplate Mtn the second night.

Our trip began with our late arrival at the 232 St and Hwy 1 rendezvous. Naturally, we were late because it took me longer than I expected to get packed that morning. Fortunately, Rob Bryce also had a leaking coolant reservoir that I helped to fix so I pinned most of the blame on him.

At the meeting area were the Lippmann clan in three trucks (CJ7, Bronco, Cherokee), Steve & Lainey in his 4Runner, Chris & Jonathan in Chris' YJ and Gord in his Land Cruiser. The late arrivers were myself and my wife, Sue, riding with Alan in his Cherokee, and Rob & Mark in Rob's Comanche.

Disclaimer This article is NOT an endorsement or an encouragement to enter abandoned mine shafts. Obviously, we were doing something that was very reckless and had the potential for serious injury. Hmm...having said that, I think this disclaimer should apply to this entire website.

We began our journey by joining the rest of the east-bound traffic on Hwy 1. Armin Lippmann is a devout breakfast man so we stopped to eat in Chilliwack. This also gave us an opportunity to tank up with some relatively cheap gas. After breakfast, we continued on our way and eventually reached Manning Park, which is notorious for speed traps. Equally notorious is Alan Chung for his heavy throttle foot. You can see where this is going, can't you? As we neared one particular stretch of road where the cops were known to hide, just like in the movies, behind a billboard, I informed Alan of the park's reputation for speed traps. Five minutes later, traveling at 130km/h in a 90km/h zone, Al got busted by a cop...behind a billboard. $175 later, we pressed on towards Princeton. I was sympathetic enough not to say "I told you so," although some would argue that posting this story on the Internet is even worse.

At Princeton, we made a final stop for gas, ice and flush toilets. At the gas station, Armin caught the scent of radiator coolant. He checked everyone's engine compartment before realizing it was his CJ7 that had the problem (he who smelt it, dealt it). This second cooling system problem of our trip was solved with a spare hose and hose clamp. We then headed for the hills. On the road towards Copper Mtn, across the valley from the Smelter Lakes, we stopped to have a quick chat with a half-dozen Jeepers who were also exploring old mines. A few minutes after our chat, we drove to the top of Copper Mtn and made the turn onto the Willis Creek Road.

The turn-off at the Willis Crk crossing was a surprise because we were greeted by the site of a new, very heavy duty bridge. Given the infrequent use this road receives, we assumed that logging must now be taking place on Agate Mtn. Nothing else could have warranted the construction of such a sturdy bridge.

Our guess was confirmed when we reached the first clear cut. Fortunately, the continuation of the trail was easily visible on the other side. Less than a kilometer later, we arrived at another cut. This one was accompanied by the requisite spur roads shooting off in all directions. About that same time, we received word that Chris Lippmann's Cherokee was having some cooling problems. Half an hour later, that problem was resolved. Rob & Mark drove ahead to find the continuation of the trail while the rest of us switched from shorts to pants and applied bug spray. The mosquitoes had found us.

The new bridge across Willis Creek.

Rob finds an optional section he just "had" to try.

Jonathan provides moral support while Chris tinkers with his overflow bottle.

It didn't take long for Rob & Mark to find the trail. Once again, we were on our way. The rest of the trail was straightforward and free of clear cuts (although flagging alongside the trail hinted at coming changes). The only thing left to worry about was whether there were other people already camped at the lookout. A short while later, we had our answer...the lookout was ours.

We couldn't all fit into the lookout station for the night so we unloaded the tents and began to set them up. This required some careful thought because there wasn't a lot of shelter at the top of the mountain. We reserved the lookout for a communal area for cooking and, if the weather turned bad or the mosquitoes attacked, for socializing.

Alan Chung makes like a busy little beaver. This was the only obstacle on our way to the lookout.

Not only is Rob's Comanche extremely capable offroad, it comes in handy as a logging truck, too.

Settling in for the evening.

Once everything was set up for the evening, Rob, Sue and I went to collect firewood. There was a lot of blow down on the side of the trail so finding wood was easy and cutting it up was a simple task since we had Armin's chainsaw with us. Before long, we had more than enough firewood for the night. Good thing, too, because it was somewhat windy which cooled things down an awful lot. Late that evening, Armin, Rob and I went for a drive back down to the Willis Creek road to find Ron and Dolores Gooch. They left Salmon Arm around 8:00pm to meet us at the top of Agate Mountain. This was their first time there and the only directions they had were some sketchy verbal descriptions we provided over Rob's cell phone when we first reached the lookout. They had gotten as far as the Willis Creek road but couldn't find the trail. Our position atop the mountain made CB contact possible so the "rescue" party was sent. On our way down, as Armin was picking his way through the first clear cut, his front bumper slammed into a stump, stopping the Jeep instantly and slam dunking Rob's forehead into the front rollbar hoop. Ouch!

When we got to the bottom, we made CB contact with Ron and Dolores. When we met up with them, they were about 75m past the correct turn-off. By the time we got back to the top of the mountain, most of the gang had gone to bed so I turned in as well.

Day 2

While not exactly warm, the following morning was at least dry. Considering how windy it was during the night, this was a pleasant surprise. Making breakfast and striking the camp was done at a purposely leisurely pace. We agreed prior to the trip that this would be a nice, laid-back weekend of camping and exploring and that's exactly what it turned out to be.

The next morning, the weather was great...

...we had a great view from the lookout...

...but due to the evening before, not everyone was able to enjoy it.

Al at the VORTAC station doing...something.

After leaving the lookout, we proceeded northeast towards the VORTAC air navigation beacon and then down towards Wolf Lake and Highway 3. At the highway, we headed east for the 15 minute drive towards Hedley. Just outside of Hedley, we stopped at the viewpoint to ogle the Mascot Mines, perched high atop Hedley, on the side of Nickelplate Mountain. Our goal that day was to explore some of the mine's shafts which were purportedly accessible from somewhere behind Lookout Peak.

We picked up some ice at the gas station in Hedley and then drive a kilometer east before leaving Highway 3 and beginning the zig-zagging climb up the side of Nickelplate Mountain. When the road started winding away from the mountain's side, we spotted the lower part of the Homestake mining operation. Homestake operated a huge open pit mine which shut down in the mid 1990's. Since then, they've been carrying out an ambitious plan to return the site to its natural state. Unfortunately, they will never be able to replace the remnants of the original Nickelplate mine and townsite that were obliterated by Homestake's gigantic operation.

Airing down for comfort, not traction. This is the bottom of Nickelplate Mtn.	We took a short cut past some of the switchbacks.
Here are some of the dusty, washboarded switchbacks we had to negotiate to climb the mountain.	The view from the bluff was spectacular. This is the Similkameen Valley. If you follow it in the direction the camera's pointing, you'll reach Princeton.

The access road to the Mascot Mine goes through Homestake's property. A sign posted by BC Heritage warns that the public cannot enter the Mascot site. Obviously, we wouldn't be using that route. Instead, we continued on the main road until we reached the turn-off towards Nickelplate Lake. A short while after that, we turned off again, this time onto the road to Lookout Peak. We were hoping to go around the peak and come out on the other side of the mountain where we could hike to one of the portals into the Mascot's shafts.

At one point, we arrived at a bluff overlooking the Homestake mine.

Our exploration took several hours and presented us with heavily overgrown trails and sudden vistas. On one particular spur, I was riding in Armin Lippmann's CJ7 when he began to have problems climbing a steep, curved trail. We got out to air down the tires and upon re-entering the Jeep, we were unable to fasten our seatbelts because the retractors were locked due to the steep angle of the Jeep. Reducing the air pressure helped but not enough. The aggressive Baja Claws just chewed deeper into the slope. Backing down proved to be a delicate task made all the more difficult by the motor which stalled yet again. Armin was hard on the brakes, doing his best to control the Jeep's descent without the benefit of the engine's vacuum boost. Then the front end started to swing to the right, in this case, also known as the DOWNHILL side. Before he had time to correct, the right rear tire fell into a pothole dug by one of our previous attempts at the hill. At that point, the events were dictated by simple physics and we were just along for the ride. The Jeep listed heavily to the downhill side, MY side, to put it in a better perspective. Our natural instinct was to lean as far as we could to counteract the roll. Armin was right up against his door and I was right up against his...er, um...lap. Like I said, it was an instinct; manners and decorum went right out the window. I knew the situation was bad. This kind of accidental intimacy always screws up a relationship, and I knew Armin would never look at me the same again. But I digress. So there we were, desperately leaning to the left, hoping the Jeep wouldn't begin a long roll down the hill. As the driver's side started to unweight itself, I thought to myself, "great, my first rollover and I don't even have my seatbelt on!" And then it stopped. The gods (or God...depending on your particular faith) were (or was) smiling on us that day! Dolores ran up to add some weight onto the driver's side while Ron attached a snatch block to a tree just uphill of the CJ7. It seemed like a very long time but it was only a few minutes before we were able to use the winch cable to stabilize the Jeep.

Of course, we didn't let a silly thing like almost rolling the Jeep and suffering severe injuries cloud our day. On our way back to meet with the rest of the group, Gord Land radioed us to tell us of a trail he located. It sounded like the trail we were after plus he always found a suitable place for us to camp. The entire group congregated on Gord's location. As we were setting up camp, it began to snow. Very lightly, of course, but it was snow, nonetheless. That got some people wondering about how cold it was going to get that evening. There were concerns that the kids would be too cold so we decided to camp at a lower elevation. A few of us would continue to look for the portal into the mountain while the rest of the group headed towards the French Mine to set up camp. The access road to this mine was located at one of the switchbacks we passed on the way up the mountain. Its lower elevation and good windbreak guaranteed warmer temperatures.

So it was just Gord Land and myself in his FJ40, and Chris Waterman and Jonathan Yim in Chris' YJ. We didn't get far before we were stopped by a dead tree lying across the road. Armin had lent us his chainsaw so Gord quickly cleared the trail. A hundred metres later, we had to clear another fallen tree. After yet another hundred metres, we came across three fallen trees, crossing the trail and about head-height. This took quite a bit more work (and was also quite dangerous) but we managed to clear that as well. Gord was pretty darned handy with that chainsaw. We also descended a soggy hill that we knew would pose some problems on the way back.

Thankfully, there were no more blowdowns after that and we managed to follow one branch of the road all the way to its end...at the Homestake mine's property. We were stopped by a very imposing barbed-wired fence. Following the path of the fence towards the edge of the mountain, our eyes fell upon a boulder barrier of biblical proportions. Apparently, Homestake was of the opinion that some people might try to circumvent the fence by vehicle. Having the necessary equipment to move thousands of tons of rock, it was a trivial matter for them to build a rock barrier that was tank-proof. We back-tracked and explored the next fork which took us lower and ended at the edge of Homestake's giant open pit mine. I was overcome by waves of vertigo as we walked along the edge, dumbstruck by the sheer size of the pit. The edge of the pit closest to the mountainside formed a knife edge with hard rock on the inside and a dramatically sloping scree slope on the outside. It was like looking at an empty dam perched at the edge of a mountain. Across that dam and over 100 metres below was the portal into the Mascot Mine tunnel system. It looked like it was possible to carefully pick our way across the scree slope but we didn't because a) we were running out of daylight and b) it was extremely dangerous. This wasn't one of those times when the calculation of fun vs. risk of death seemed worthwhile. I know you would probably like me to tell you about those times when it was worthwhile but that information could still be used as evidence against me so I'll bite my tongue for now.

Now THAT'S a hole.	Hmm...so now what do we do?
The object of our desire. In the bottom right is the portal into the mountain. In the upper left, you can see a bit of the old Mascot Mine buildings.	Here's another shot of the Mascot Mine buildings from another viewpoint.

We had exhausted all our possibilities and decided to head back to the campsite. The prospect of a hot meal and the opportunity to explore the French Mine was suddenly appealing. Our speedy return was delayed while we winched the Land Cruiser up the muddy slope. 45 minutes later, we drove into camp following the scent of BBQ'd steaks and a crackling fire. After a very filling meal, some of us grabbed our caving gear and walked under the night sky to the first adit which was only 5 minutes from camp. The last time I was here, we had only a modicum of gear and not much time...we had to leave the largest shaft unexplored but not this time. We were equipped with ropes, lots of flashlights and helmets (well, some of us brought helmets). And we had all night to play in the mine.

Lin Yee Tang's Doorway to Hell...or maybe not.	Jonathan checks out another possible route.	An ore chute. On the other side of the rock, above it and to the right is a cavern that is the remnants of a vein the miners were following.
This ladder flexed too much for our comfort. It crosses a pool that is around 8 feet deep.	Snakes and ladders.	Why yes, it IS a long ways down.

We spent about an hour scrambling through the various tunnels and up and down steep, loose slopes. Unlike what you would expect from a mine, this tunnel system was a mix of man-made shafts and what looked like natural cave openings. These openings were ringed with sloping terraces and holes in the floors, ceilings and walls. Ladders placed vertically and horizontally added an Escher-like ambience. After a lot of walking, we came across a plywood wall that used to block one of the shafts. Half of its centre was torn open. The odd thing about it was that the two-by-fours that formed the wall's structure were on our side, as though this was an exit, not an entrance. Stepping through the opening, we were surprised to see stars above our heads! We had found another exit from the shaft. Since we were already outside, we called it a night and headed back to camp for some campfire chit-chat and a beverage of our choice.

Day 3

With an easy day ahead of us, Rob took the opportunity to change a worn u-joint in his rear driveshaft. He's using Tiger Tool's cool u-joint tool. We'll be doing a review of this nifty tool pretty soon.

Our plan for this day was simple: get home by around dinner time. Breakfast was prepared at a glacial pace, as was the striking of the tents. With most of our camping gear packed, we made another foray into the tunnels. More exploration led to the discovery of two more routes that led to the outside. We spent over an hour in the mountain before we stumbled, squinting, back into the daylight. Dave and Pam brought their children a short ways into the main tunnel but they didn't seem to enjoy it very much. Outside, a few drops of rain signalled an incoming weather system which served as an incentive to finish packing and head home. As we idled down the switchbacks along the bluffs, we could see the bumper-to-bumper long-weekend traffic down in the valley crawling back to the coast. We would soon be joining in their march back to "civilization" but for the next few minutes, we could at least savour our time spent off the well-traveled path.

Those logs are actually an ore chute. Underneath is an adit into the mountain.	Besides having the mine to explore, we also had a great view of the Similkameen Valley.	Chris Lippmann, keen to begin the day's explorations.
The Lippmann men, proving that caving is a family sport.	You can't tell from this photo but this slope was quite treacherous and a fall would have been a long one.	Some of these caverns were huge. Here's Jonathan attempting the Spiderman route while the others take the sane path.
Here's a good illustration of the height of some of these caves. Look how high the flashlights are in the top right of the photo.	Here I am, hoping that the miners used good quality lumber.	Jonathan uses some of his rock climbing kung fu to climb through this opening in the tunnel.
Alan Chung doing...something, again.	Here's Dave attempting to earn himself the wreckless parenting award.	The opening of the largest of the adits.
The Lippmann's doing their impression of U2's "The Joshua Tree" album cover.	From the outside, the tunnel entrance looks pretty spooky.	Apres caving.

This trip served as yet another reminder of why I consider myself lucky to live in this great, beautiful country. There are so many thousands of kilometres of trails for exploring where we can enjoy solitude and recharge our souls. Unfortunately, there are some fellow citizens who are actively trying to lock fourwheel drive users out of public land. Get involved in land use issues NOW or it won't be long before the only people allowed in the backcountry are the environmental extremists.

...lars